Victor Canning: characters, themes and locations

Bennett, Arnold (Every Creature of God is Good).

Andrew Godwin claims that he does some writing every day, no matter how little, "like Arnold Bennett, of course."

bezique (Every Creature of God is Good).

Godwin and Mrs Vaughan play bezique while waiting for Marion.

Brentshire (Every Creature of God is Good).

Fictitious county roughly overlaid on south-west Somerset. County town is Brantham (Taunton) and the only other town mentioned is Sandover (Burnham-on-sea).

Chambers, Paul (Every Creature of God is Good).

Son of the proprietor of the Sandover gazette. Suitor of Marion Vaughan and jealous of Andrew Godwin. In the end Chambers exposes Godwin's crime when he discovers the stolen money in his room.

Mrs Clancy (Every Creature of God is Good).

Fellow tenant at Andrew Godwin's lodgings. A taciturn widow.

Clarendon Grove (Every Creature of God is Good).

Address of Andrew Godwin's lodgings in Sandover.

Collins, Sergeant (Every Creature of God is Good).

Retired policeman, organiser of the Sandover Rifle Club, of which Godwin is a member. Godwin steals Collins's Lee Enfield rifle when he foes on the run. Collins takes part in the manhunt for Godwin and shoots him dead after himself being wounded.

Driver, Lena (Every Creature of God is Good).

Farmer's daughter on a farm outside Sandover where Godwin camps overnight. When they meet for a third time, they swim in a pond and she is ready to make love but is rejected.

Enid (Every Creature of God is Good).

The housemaid at Andrew Godwin's lodgings. It is she who phones him a warning that people have been searching his room, so that he goes on the run, knowing his murder has been discovered.

Exeter (Every Creature of God is Good, Firecrest).

Godwin rides to Exeter immediately after murdering Vines and buys a tool bag in which to bury the money he has stolen. John Grimster takes Lily to the cinema, hoping to avoid Harrison.

Godwin, Andrew (Every Creature of God is Good).

The central character of the book. He works as a clerk, has ambitions to write, wants money and murders a junior colleague to rob him of the cash he is carrying. He is eventually found out and is shot after a chase over Exmoor.

Greenfield, E.A. (Every Creature of God is Good).

Tailor's shop in Sandover. Godwin orders the expensive Donegal Tweed suit. After ordering it, he receives in the post the cheap blue blazer he has ordered.

heron (Every Creature of God is Good).

The Heron is the first of Andrew Godwin's wildlife articles in the Sandover Gazette.

Miss Hitchcock (Every Creature of God is Good).

Fellow tenant at Andrew Godwin's lodgings. She "wore a habitual air of Christian joy".

Hobart, Lucy (Every Creature of God is Good).

Daughter of the landlord of the Rose and Thistle pub, lover of Albert Vines, and thinks she is pregnant just before he is murdered. This plot strand is not wound up in the book; we are never told if she is really pregnant or what happens to he later.

Huxley, Aldous (Every Creature of God is Good).

The Sandover public library found itself in the national press when it banned a novel by Huxley. Presumably Canning had some recent event of this kind in mind.

Jersey (Every Creature of God is Good).

Where Rickard goes for his summer holiday, flying from Southampton.

Mr Jollyboy (Every Creature of God is Good).

Senior clerk at the Education Office where Andrew Godwin works.

Larking, Herbert (Every Creature of God is Good).

Fellow tenant at Andrew Godwin's lodgings. A clerk in the cable office.

Lena (Every Creature of God is Good).

See Driver, Lena

Lucy (Every Creature of God is Good).

See Hobart, Lucy

Macer's Orchestra (Every Creature of God is Good).

They play on the seafront in Sandover. Godwin draws a cartoon of them on the back of the invoice for his blue blazer, and it is this drawing which eventually leads Chambers to suspect him of the murder of Vines.

Mrs Myatt (Every Creature of God is Good).

Landlady of Andrew Godwin's lodgings.

N.A.L.G.O. (Every Creature of God is Good).

Union to which all the clerks belong. Godwin speaks at a meeting to set up another federation for the clerks, and he is theefore seen as "Bolshy".

New Zealand (Every Creature of God is Good).

Godwin toys with the idea of emigrating to New Zealand.

Ogden, Matthew (Every Creature of God is Good).

Director of Education for Brentshire, "a godlike person".

The Pilgrims (Every Creature of God is Good).

Literary society in Sandover run by the Vaughans.

Pirade, Eileen (Every Creature of God is Good).

Typist working for Mr Way at the Education Office. She is also taking a writing course and discusses writing with Godwin.

Plymouth (Every Creature of God is Good).

Where Godwin is first interviewed by police after the murder of Vines.

Puffin (Every Creature of God is Good).

Small boat belonging to John Sinclair, used by Andrew Godwin to escape from Sandover when he is about to be arrested. The boat is then wrecked in a storm of the coast of north Devon.

Rapstone (Every Creature of God is Good).

Hill outside Sandover where Godwin goes birdwatching.

Rickard (Every Creature of God is Good).

Colleague of Andrew Godwin at the Education Office.

Rose and Thistle (Every Creature of God is Good).

Pub in Sandover. The barmaid and daughter of the house, Lucy, is pregnant by Albert Vines, the murder victim. It is in the garage of this pub that the murder is committed.

Ross (Every Creature of God is Good).

Senior clerk at the Education Committee office where Andrew Godwin works. He invites Godwin to his house for tea, and Godwin reacts against this as a vision of the kind of future he can expect if he stays a clerk.

Sandover (Every Creature of God is Good).

Fictional town roughly matching Burnham-on-sea. The setting for the book.

The Sandover Gazette (Every Creature of God is Good).

Sandover's local paper, owned and run by the Chambers family. At the beginning of the book they publish wildlife articles by Andrew Godwin, but reject later ones.

Sinclair, John (Every Creature of God is Good).

Sailor friend of Andrew Godwin. Godwin steals his boat Puffin to escape when his murder is exposed.

Snell (Every Creature of God is Good).

Junior clerk at the Education Office where Andrew Godwin works.

Mrs Spencer (Every Creature of God is Good).

Widow of the museum curator in Sandover and member of the Pilgrims literary group. Her husband shot one of the last buzzards that used to nest on Rapstone and stuffed it for the museum. She does not detect Godwin's hostility about this.

Vaughan, Marion (Every Creature of God is Good).

Elegant young lady, enthusiastic member of the Sandover Literary Society, who tries to encourage Andrew Godwin to write. Their association annoys Paul Chambers, her suitor and eventual fiance.

Vines, Albert (Every Creature of God is Good).

Office boy at the Education Office. He takes the pay cheques to the bank for cashing every week, and comes back with £300 in cash. Murdered for the cash by Godwin.

Way, Joe (Every Creature of God is Good).

Senior clerk at the Education Office and Andrew Godwin's immediate superior.

Westminster Bank (Every Creature of God is Good).

The bank in Sandover from which Albert Vines collects the money for the clerks' pay.